The Real Thing

written by Tom Stoppard

Friday July 18th 2003 —
Saturday August 9th 2003

This intellectually and emotionally engaging backstage comedy portrays an articulate and romantically idealistic playwright whose second wife is trying to merge worthy causes with her art as an actress. She has net a “political prisoner” named Brodie who has been jailed for radical thuggery, and who has written an inept play about how property is theft, how the state stifles the rights of the individual, etc., etc., etc. Henry’s wife wants him to make the play work theatrically, which he does after much soul searching. Eventually, though, he is able to convince his wife that Brodie is emphatically not a victim of political repression; he is, in fact, a thug. And while this hilariously transpires, Henry’s concepts of love, marriage and fidelity are tested as surely as his writing skills.